Trial is set to begin in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday for Occupy Wall Street activist, Cecily McMillan, who faces 2nd degree assault charges stemming from a 2012 encounter with the NYPD that left her beaten and unconscious. McMillan was brutally arrested on the evening of March 17, 2012 at an event marking the 6-month anniversary of the group’s occupation of Zuccotti Park. The series of events leading up McMillan’s beating was documented extensively by the press, and began with a male NYPD officer forcibly grabbing her right breast. McMillan was 23 years old at the time.

There is a vast total-information-awareness surveillance network made up of global corporations and subservient (captured) governments engaging in the systematic infiltration and suppression of social justice activist groups. Their main method of control is the implementation of divide-and-conquer strategies. When it comes to activists, their approach is to apply these strategies to what they have defined as four distinct groups: Radicals, who see the system as corrupt are marginalized and discredited with character assassination techniques. Realists, who can be convinced that real change is not possible. Idealists, who can be convinced (through propaganda) that they have the facts wrong. And Opportunists, who are in it for themselves and therefore can be easily co-opted.

The University of London - a body representing London universities including University College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Birkbeck and the London School of Economics - has banned protests on its campus for the next six months.

Alex Kane of Alternet reports that Beau Hodai’s Source Watch report “provides an eye-opening look into how US counter-terrorism agencies monitored the Occupy movement in 2011 and 2012.” Government documents, obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy/DBA Press, from the National Security Agency and other government offices revealed “a grim mosaic of ‘counter-terrorism’ operations” and negative attitudes towards activists and other citizens.

Independent journalist Kenneth Lipp attended a law enforcement conference in Philadelphia on Monday in which he discovered that soon authorities may have control over what’s posted on social media sites. This includes allowing people to plan demonstrations using sites such as Facebook. Both Twitter and Facebook have proven to be indispensable tools for organization during movements such as the Arab Spring. But now it seems police officers want to find ways to obstruct protests, and they will likely do so with Facebook’s help. RT reports:

Jerry Koch, known in Occupy Wall Street circles for being "the go-to person for help contacting lawyers, raising bail, and organizing supporters to be there when someone had a hearing or was released," is being held in contempt of court for up to 18 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury in what many believe is an effort by the FBI to intimidate other anarchists, and anyone else engaged in political dissent. His crime? He is believed to have been at a bar where a conversation between other people took place and information about a 2008 explosive device outside an army recruitment station in Times Square was discussed. The message to other dissidents? If you are thought to be anywhere even near the wrong kind of conversation, you could be suspect.

In October 2012 it was revealed that the BPD placed local anti-war groups under surveillance with no plausible connections to criminal activity. One year later many questions remain about the scope of the BPD’s breach of privacy. What was the purpose of such surveillance and how was it done? Are antiwar activists continuing to have their protected free speech rights violated? Has information on antiwar groups been passed on to national databases, perhaps stored permanently?